Police responded to a Richmond house for a water leak. Then they found blood on the walls.

RICHMOND, Ind. — A phone call from a property manager to Richmond police last weekend about a major water leak resulted in a discovery at the house that has potential to be much more sinister.

According to a neighbor, who did not want to be identified, officers were called to 25 1/2 N. 16th St. for a water leak that the neighbor said they were told by a plumber amounted to about 2,500 gallons.

The house is split into two residences, with one apartment on the main floor of the house and the other upstairs. It was the upstairs apartment police were called about.

Once there, police apparently discovered blood in the apartment, including splatter marks on the wall as well as a drag mark, the neighbor said.

"They just thought someone was killed upstairs," the neighbor said. "There was enough blood for it to be considered a homicide because of the amount of blood. They said it was the same type of blood and a bullet went through the floor, hit the waterline and flooded the house out."

About six police cars and 10 officers from the Richmond Police Department and Wayne County Sheriff's Department were at the property through Sunday morning before the crime scene tape was removed at around 4 p.m.

The neighbor said the property manager made the discovery, who they said came to the house to "do some things" before finding the blood and calling police.

Despite rumors that a body was found, the neighbor said that was untrue but said investigators are looking for one.

Pauline Robinson is no longer the primary caretaker for the home but was at the property two weeks ago after finishing up rehab work on it.

"We had it redone inside: painted, plumbing, wiring, new toilet, stuff like that," she said. "We turned the key in and then the neighbor called me about a couple of days ago and said there was water running."

Robinson said once she got to the house, the back door was kicked in, all the replaced windows were broken and water was pouring from the ceiling into the bathroom.

"I go back out and go through the front door and when I looked in the window, oh my gosh, I don't know what they did," she said. "They took a sledgehammer or something and just beat the whole hallway wall out and all the ... plaster was on the steps."

Robinson then took a video of the damage before making her way upstairs to find blood everywhere, as well as more damage.

"They had knocked the wall out from the kitchen, the bathroom. They ripped the cabinets off the wall. You name it, they destroyed it," she said.

The brand new toilet along with the tub were also busted up, which is where Robinson thinks a pipe may have been broken in the process.

"Who knows how many days it was running?" she said. "It was pouring like you had your bathtub on full blast it went all down in the basement into the downstairs apartment."

Despite all the damage done to the newly remodeled house, it was the blood all over the upstairs apartment that prompted Robinson to call police.

"It looked like somebody had been murdered up there, there was so much blood," she said.

According to Robinson, no one had been legally living inside the house for nearly a year and a half, with squatters taking up residence in that time.

Police have been called to the property multiple times before, three times to evict squatters as well as a call for a garage fire in late 2022 that Robinson said she was told was being used to make meth. The garage was torn down as a result.

"When I first went to the property, I hauled off eight loads of trash in the beginning just to clear it out," Robinson said. "I go back six months later when we were going to start on it and it was plumb full of furniture and trash again, and needles galore. They were using it as a squatting house and drug house."

According to Beacon, a public resource for property ownership, the house is owned by Mont Blanc Enterprises LLC, a company based out of Pennsylvania but has a registered agent based in Indianapolis.

Mont Blanc Enterprises LLC has owned the property since Oct. 11, 2022, purchasing it from King Real Estate LLC. The last private ownership of the property was by Jesse King, who sold it on March 26, 2021.

Officials have not released any information about the investigation. Richmond Chief of Police Kyle Weatherly did not respond to a request for comment.

Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Police investigating water leak find possible Richmond crime scene